USA vs Belgium: World Cup last 16: Trump, Balogun, prediction, start time
Lobbying by President Trump and a last-minute U-turn by FIFA stir controversy before the knockout match. Four wins to go. How can your team reach
Lobbying by President Trump and a last-minute U-turn by FIFA stir controversy before the knockout match. Four wins to go. How can your team reach the final and win the 2026 World Cup? Click here to find out. Who: USA vs Belgium What: FIFA World Cup 2026 round of 16 Where: Seattle Stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States When: Monday at 7pm (00:00 GMT going into Tuesday) How to follow: We will have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 20:30 GMT before our live text commentary stream. Even before a ball is kicked, the dirty game is under way – and it’s the USA that has the advantage. An unfair one, some might argue. Less than 48 hours before the USA’s last-16 tie against Belgium, US President Donald Trump personally urged FIFA and its chief, Gianni Infantino, to review a case pertaining to the American team, according to multiple reports. It was about a red card handed out to their in-form striker Folarin Balogun in the last game. Normally, such a booking leads to at least a one-game suspension, but the USA is alleged to have used its “Trump” card, and just like that, FIFA made the unprecedented decision to suspend Balogun’s automatic red-card ban. The controversial call to clear Balogun to play in Monday’s decisive World Cup knockout tie left many wondering about the increasing influence of politics in football while it also thrust FIFA’s disciplinary process into the global spotlight, albeit for the wrong reasons. Whether that decision works against Belgium remains to be seen, but after days of lobbying, the pressure is now firmly on the USA – the last World Cup cohost remaining in the tournament – to step up in Seattle and chase their first quarterfinals berth in more than two decades.
Al Jazeera tells you everything about USA vs Belgium How did the USA and Belgium reach the round of 16? The USA topped Group D with six points, beating Paraguay and Australia before losing to Turkiye. They began their knockout run with a 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32. Belgium topped Group G with five points, drawing with Egypt and Iran before beating New Zealand. In their last-32 tie, they beat Senegal 3-2 in extra time. Balogun’s red card suspension raises questions about integrity Until Sunday, the focus of the game was purely about the football: cohosts USA carrying the weight of rising expectations in a promising tournament and an experienced Belgium side that has been far from convincing. But the high-stakes clash took a political turn when a personal intervention from Trump prompted a last-minute U-turn from FIFA. Balogun, who was sent off for planting his boot into the ankle of Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic, had his one-match ban suspended, opening the door for him to start against Belgium. “In line with article 27 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year,” FIFA said in a statement. Whether FIFA had upheld justice or undermined its own rules is up for debate, but what’s more evident is that the decision has become the biggest talking point of the tournament with two weeks to go until the July 19 final. “I think 99.9 percent of people in football have said this is an unfair punishment, and there’s evidence from the past that makes it possible to suspend a punishment and to fulfil it later on, so I don’t understand how people can be surprised,” USA coach Mauricio Pochettino told reporters.
The BriefWire